AREN'T THESE THE EFFECTS RATHER THAN THE CAUSES?

New View of Faculty Liberalism (Scott Jaschik, January 18, 2010, Inside Higher Ed)

The research was done by Neil Gross, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, and Ethan Fosse, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Harvard University. [...]

In this analysis, Fosse and Gross do not dispute that faculty members are more liberal than the public at large. Rather, they make two main arguments. First they look at a range of characteristics that apply disproportionately to professors but are not unique to professors, and examine the political leanings associated with these characteristics -- finding that several of them explain a significant portion of the political gap between faculty members and others. Then, they offer what they call a new theory to explain why academe may attract more liberals, regardless of whether they have those characteristics.

The paper finds that 43 percent of the political gap can be explained because professors are more likely than others:

* To have high levels of educational attainment.
* To experience a disparity between their levels of educational attainment and income.
* To be either Jewish, non-religious, or a member of a faith that is not theologically conservative Protestant.
* To have a high tolerance for controversial ideas.

The analysis is based on data from the General Social Survey from 1974-2008. Beyond the items above, a smaller but significant impact also was found because professors are more likely than others to have lived in an urban area growing up and to have fewer children.